State Street ‘chaos’ leaves a family frustrated, car totaled
A GoFundMe has been set up for the UK student whose car was flipped in Saturday night's celebrations on State Street
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – A University of Kentucky win over Florida over the weekend resulted in a wild night on State Street. Now, Lexington police are asking the community for help in an investigation of property damage after one student watched his car get flipped by a mob of fans.
Storming State Street after a Kentucky win is a longstanding tradition for many students at the university. Couches and chairs aren’t safe from celebrating students and, unfortunately, neither are cars. That’s something UK.student Zach Preston learned the hard way Saturday night when his car was flipped and totaled in the chaos.
Videos and pictures circled social media showing the car being flipped by a group of people as Preston stands back watching.
His dad created a GoFundMe to help his son, in it saying the car was a family car owned for years. His dad goes on to say Preston tried to stop the “mob” but was attacked.
Some girls who live on State Street say they started worrying about their house and belongings during the fourth quarter of the game and sprinted back from downtown when it was clear UK would win.
“When we came back the car was already flipped over, there were people on our porch that we didn’t even know and it was chaos,” said Megan Schlie, UK student living on State Street.
From the vantage point on their porch, the girls say they saw the chaos unfolding.
“We could see the police all the way down the street starting to make their way over here, and we could see everything that was thrown into the fire right here,” said Schlie. “We saw people climbing on top of the car. I mean, the firetrucks coming around the corner. We saw everything.”
Lexington police released a statement saying a fire was started in the road and the car was flipped before officers arrived. According to police, raw footage is being reviewed while officers work to identify the people involved. Police say criminal charges are expected and ask anyone with information, photos or videos to submit those to Lexington police or Bluegrass Crime Stoppers.
ABC 36 has been in contact with the Preston family and they say they’re frustrated as to the behaviors seen on State Sttrry. The Prestons say they do have car insurance and that problem is getting taken care of, but they want answers as to the problem of State Street celebrations.
